Madrid musings

Hola from Madrid where the cheesecake is as creamy and smooth as Arthur Fils’ game style! I’ve been spending most of my time resting on one of the many benches the city has to offer, I hung out with my buddy Diego Velazquez and I, of course, watched plenty of tennis. From Rafael Jodar and Alexander Blockx to Hailey Baptiste and Anastasia Potapova, we’ve had beautiful breakthrough performances that washed ashore new and exciting players.

For the first time in a very long time, neither Sabalenka nor Rybakina, neither Swiatek nor Gauff, are left in the final stages of a big tournament on the women’s side. Which in turn shows you how consistent the top of women’s tennis has been for a while now. We still have Mirra Andreeva, though, who will face Marta Kostyuk in the final on Saturday. Both Mirra and Marta are blessed with impressive court coverage that will always give them an advantage on clay but what’s interesting about it - and what’s really the beauty of tennis - is that the manner differs in how they’re able to make the court feel so small for their opponents.

Mirra has fantastic anticipation. She senses patterns in her opponents’ games and instinctually takes to what they are trying to do. It’s almost like a specific Mirra-law of gravitation where she seems to be pulled into the direction of the opponents’ shots before they have hit them. Marta, on the other hand, just simply has the foot speed. She has explosive, fast-twitching muscles that get her out of the corners at lightening speed and her dynamic first step when she sets out to sprint is a thing of beauty. It doesn’t mean that Mirra can’t run and Marta can’t anticipate, it’s obviously more nuanced than that, their strengths just come from different places. The result remains the same which is being a huge pain in the bum for their opponents.

The match of the tournament was undoubtedly played by Hailey Baptiste and Aryna Sabalenka and in a way they knocked each other out at the same time. Maybe Aryna could’ve ended up winning the tournament had she come through because of her experience but when Hailey hit a forehand winner to seal the deal you could just see how much this match had taken out of Hailey. That’s the complicated part in tennis. A certain match may have the importance and the emotions of a super bowl or world cup or even a game to win the Premiership but in tennis you have to come out the next day and play again. Unless it’s a final.

I just know that Hailey’s phone must’ve exploded the same way Patrick Mouratoglou’s phone must’ve exploded when he said the TOP 10 now are stronger than they were ten years ago (I mean, LOL). It wasn’t only that Hailey beat the world number one, it was the way she did it. The quality of the match was extremely high, the drama was intense and Hailey saved six (!!!) match points, two of them playing serve&volley on a second serve, one of them pulling off a casual drop-shot/lob kinda situation. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a match like that and I watch a lot of tennis.

If life was a movie, cheesy piano music would’ve set in, the titles would’ve run, letters would’ve appeared:

That year, Hailey went on to win 4 titles, one of them was Roland Garros and she finished the year as world number one. She inspired millions of girls to play tennis and she is now considered an icon of women’s sport.

And…scene.

I kinda see it, to be honest.

Unfortunately, tennis (and life) is one of these things that continues to roll when we are ready to be done. In a way, I found Hailey’s performance against Mirra Andreeva more impressive than her match against Aryna. Her level didn’t nose-dive and it’s making me really excited for what’s still to come for her.

Another player who has made me excited for what’s still to come is Rafael Jodar. Apart from his tennis the thing I love most about him is that there is no ounce of trying to be cool in him. Which, as these things go, makes him incredibly cool. Young people, not only tennis players, hold the monopoly on being cool. It’s just how the world works but there’s something about a young kid who cares more about his craft than what it looks like that endears him to me. Jannik Sinner has similar vibes in that regard. Rafael’s tennis on the screen might not look as spectacular as it does in real life because the baseline pace he brings to court on both of his groundstrokes is so high that it sort of negates the velocity for a TV viewer. It’s like photographing something really big or really small with no object in comparison next to it. I don’t know what size this tree is if there’s no human being next to it.

My friend Caitlin had a, in my opinion, ground-breaking idea for the Olympic Games which we should consider for tennis too. Have an amateur do the discipline right before the professionals enter the court, the arena, the swimming pool. We would finally be able see the tree in the forest.

Exciting days ahead! Rome is next! I will go to all the churches! And drink a thousand tiny espressi a day.

Things that make me happy

Madrid is the city of Goyas and Velazquez but mainly it’s the city of benches. Everywhere you go, there is a bench to rest, to read, to chat on and I love it. My hot take of the day is that the reason so many people in Madrid spend their time outside is because they have benches they can rest their weary bodies on.

Things that make me unhappy

I went to the Prado museum where there’s no photography allowed (which I didn’t know) so I got yelled at for taking a photo. The thing that makes me unhappy is that the painting I took a photo of was such a random weird baby angels painting and I only photographed it because my mind went to: this is what happens when you’re unserious about birth control. I’m upset because the photo I should’ve taken before being escorted by security is the Jesus on a cross painting by Velazquez. It was breathtaking and I still think about it at least once every hour.

May somebody squeeze fresh orange juice by hand for you. There are so many more players I wanted to talk about this week but I ran out of time and I have to run to work now so please forgive me!

Yours truly, Andrea